A call to conscience

Deborah Lipstadt, the prominent Holocaust historian, is resigning her membership in her local synagogue because it belongs to a movement that defended an Israeli political deal with the extremist right wing.

Lipstadt belonged to Young Israel of Toco Hills in Atlanta, an Orthodox congregation. The broader Young Israel movement, in a statement Monday to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, defended an agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jewish Power, a far-right political party. Jewish Power is led by followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel.

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The rabbi of Lipstadt’s synagogue, Adam Starr, himself condemned the statement in a Facebook post Monday, writing “Not in my name and not in my shul’s name!” But Lipstadt still felt that she could not continue to be associated with Young Israel, despite having fond words for her synagogue and rabbi.

“I cannot be associated with an organization that gives such racism, celebration of violence, and immoral policies a ‘heksher,'” or imprimatur, she wrote in an open letter posted to Facebook Tuesday. “At this time of rising antisemitism, Jew hatred, and prejudice of all kinds, each of us – and not just our spiritual leaders – must speak out and act individually and collectively. And so I speak out with deep sadness that such a despicable action is given ‘cover’ by people who claim to walk in the ways of the Kadosh Baruch Hu,” a Hebrew term for God.

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Lipstadt also condemned Netanyahu for the agreement, which saw Jewish Power merge with other right-wing parties in a joint slate for Israel’s upcoming election. The unified slate will give the parties a better chance of getting enough votes to enter Israel’s Knesset. She said the deal was of a piece with Netanyahu’s recent tendency to cozy up to right-wing nationalist leaders in Europe, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

  Jewish Telegraphic Agency